LED Light Bar vs LED Square Flood lights - Bad news, light bar not as good

[newbury]

For the most common LED lights you can use roughly 75 - 100 lumens per watt as a reference point. They are slowly getting more lumens per watt but for now this is a good reference point if you need to know. A lumen reading can be very deceiving when comparing LED to incandescent light or HID lamps.

Steve

How can a lumen reading be deceiving?

 

[Steve_Miller]

By number or human perception?

Steve

 

[MinnesotaEric]

There does seem to be a fair amount of hocus pocus with LED lighting when it comes to rating. If it was really 180 watts, it would draw 15 amps at 12 volts. Below is just one example. Scroll down to the comments. One guy actually checked the current and calculated the input power at around 86 watts:

Amazon.com: ANNTｮ 180w 32" LED Light Bar Spot Flood Combo Work Lights Off Road Light: Home Improvement

Whew, that's too much. Here is the very light bar I have on the front of my truck.

Amazon.com: Xprite 30" Led Off Road Led Light Bar Flood/Spot Combo Beam- 3W Led-180W-11,250 Lumen: Automotive

It could be brighter, but it is only $51.00 for a 30" light bar. Welcome to FOREX exchange rates between the dollar and yuan importing deflation as I thought this light bar was a good deal when I paid $169.00 a couple of years ago for it.

 

[powerscol]

All I can say is the 20" light bar I got from https://motoalliance.com/Site.Store....ents&catId=221 motoalliance is excellent for my needs. They now offer curved models to spread the light out wider and have other lights too. I believe you pay for what you get. Folks are great to work with too. I did an install on my tractor, you can find it here; http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/customization/352434-20-sirius-professional-led-flood.html

Hope this helps

 

[Steve_Miller]

Just went through the same thing, bought a 120 watt for $60 cdn, free shipping, what the heck have I got to lose. I've blown $60 on worse things. Light bar shows up, first thing I hook it to the ride on battery, not as bright as I thought, got ammeter out and check, 3.4 amps@12.6Vdc, hook it to 24 Vdc and got 1.7amps, either way it works out to 41 watts. My two 18 watt LED's I already had on the tractor were as bright or brighter than this light bar. Sent seller a reply and he says QC must have missed this one and requested pictures of ammeter/volt readings which I immediately sent. He says that he has just sold out of this type of light (yeh, right) and if I send the light bar back and sent him a copy of the postal receipt he will refund both or I can keep this light bar and he will refund me $40. I counteroffer, i find another light similar to this one (126 watt) that he has advertised, if he will send me one of these ($80) and when it arrives I will send the original back at my expense to trade of the $20 difference. He replies that his supplier has pulled these 126 watt back from him and that he will refund my full purchase price and for me to keep the light bar. So I have a half *** light bar for free. I go back on line and see that this seller has at least five different stage names on ebay that all ship from the same location. I sent a request to state the current ratings for at least five other light bars advertised and have yet to receive a response from any of them. Beware, if they don't state the current rating for the light, stay away from them. I got lucky and got mine for nothing.

Steve

Digest this then, the above light was rated at 8000 lumens, 120 watts times 75 lumens/watt (average) equals 8000 lumens, fair enough. I measured 41 watts, times 75 lumens/watt equals 3075 lumens, if it were 8000 lumens then 8000 divided by 41 watts equals 195 watts per lumens. I don't believe there too many LED lights on the market at this time if any that produce these kind of numbers. There may be 40 by 3 watt LED's in this fixture but they are sure not driving them to there potential at 41 watts, hence my two 18 watt LED lamps that actually do draw 18 watts each are rated at 1350 lumens equaling 2700 lumens which is very close to the 3075 calculated above which explains why they are almost as bright as the light bar. Point being buyer beware and do some digging or investigating when purchasing although I did and still didn't get what was advertised but got lucky and got the light for free when exposing false advertising. All I mange to do from what I seen in the days following was the seller removed the current rating from the description and still rated them at 120 watts.

Steve

 

[varmint]

Too bad that all this is so complicated and subject to BS from sellers. I might get around to measuring draw on some of my lights, just out of curiosity about stated claims vs. delivered performance. Has anyone addressed the purported wide range of operating voltage vs. amperage draw. Of course, watts is watts. I'm just happy the lights are cheap and do their job.

 

[Charliebrn]

Ok...i've done a search, and this is the best I've found, but has there been any newer installs that people have been happy with? My halogens that I have mounted on my canopy are getting worse for wear and I'd love an opportunity for a great lighting upgrade on my little tractor. What's everyone done?

Cheers...

 

[moship]

Charliebrn,

If you're simply looking to replace your halogens any of the LED lights rated at 18 watts or greater will provide more light than you currently have. Last year I replaced 55-halogen fog lights with something like this Amazon.com: YITAMOTOR LED Light Bar,2X 18W 6 inch Flood LED Work Light Bar Lamp Driving Light Fog Light Offroad Led Light Waterproof for SUV ATV 4WD Car Truck Van Golf Cart 12V 24V: Automotive

The light output seemed 2x over the halogens.

I've used a variety of other sizes ranging from 18, 27 and 36 watts and they all exceed what common halogens will. Don't waste your time overthinking this. I've yet to find one that actually draws their rated current, but who cares when the light output is so great. Of course any of the light bars (>24") will look impressive and blind anyone that looks into them.

 

[Fallon]

My install is documented at http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=376458 I went overkill on the wiring. The 250 & 300 watt advertised bars pulled half that in practice. No clue what lumens the 52 & 43" bars put out, but its freaking bright. Both had noisy power supplies that caused radio interference. I was able to suppress the RFI on the rear bar with some ferrite beads, but turning on the front one mostly kills any radio recepetion. Likely to be an issue with most cheap LED bars.

 

[chim]

After using LED's for a few years, I've noticed a few things. They do light up an area pretty well. Definition of things is with LED lighting isn't as good as with standard halogens. LED's manage to put out blinding light when viewed from well outside the area that is effectively lit - someone standing way off to the side (in the dark, from the operator's perspective) can barely stand to look at the tractor.